Hayama Onsen

Hayama Onsen offers siliceous mineral bathing in the exclusive coastal town of Hayama in Kanagawa Prefecture, where the Imperial Villa of Hayama—the Japanese Emperor's official seaside residence, perched above the pine-shaded Sagami Bay coastline—gives this small fishing and sailing community the quiet distinction of being Japan's imperial seaside retreat, reflected in the town's unhurried elegance, world-class sailing facilities, and meticulously maintained natural environment. The thermal waters warm bathers in a town whose Morito Shrine—a quiet Shinto sanctuary on a pine-clad headland above the sea—and hillside residences of Tokyo's cultural elite have made Hayama synonymous with understated Japanese coastal aesthetic sensibility since the Meiji era, when intellectuals of the Shirakaba literary school set important works in its light-dappled forests. The imperial connection, the Hayama marina's elegant sailing culture, and the warm mineral waters create a thermal spa experience of particular Japanese refinement at the most distinguished address on the Shonan coast.